Sweet Potatoes - It’s What’s For Dinner

you're gonna love working with this nutritious veggie 🍠

Welcome to Roots! A newsletter about plant-based eating, nutrition, lifestyle, I cover it all. Join me, Lori Osterberg, as I explore good food, great health, and Gorgeous Wellth! New here? Get started.

Remember the ads, “Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.” (Maybe I’m showing my age. I just looked, and they ran in the early 1990s.) I’ve kind of grabbed that messaging and made it my own. My family here’s it a lot, as in:

Tofu. It’s what’s for dinner. Or

Broccoli. It’s what’s for dinner.

Yep, I could go on with all the food we eat. My family definitely hears it. 🙂

And I do go through trends where I use one staple ingredient, and use it repeatedly, in different ways. Which leads me to my newest trend:

Sweet potatoes. It’s what’s for dinner.

Several years ago, I attended a Vegfest here in my local community. It’s an expo designed to teach more about vegan lifestyles, and offers health and wellness classes as well as cooking demonstrations. (And a whole lot of booths where you can find vegan-based products.) I wandered into a cooking demonstration while waiting for a class to begin, and found a new appreciation for sweet potatoes. She was a sweet potato cookbook author, and told a fascinating tale of how nutritious sweet potatoes are, and how many different ways you can use them.

I was hooked.

The WHY of Sweet Potatoes

I always have sweet potatoes in my house. Especially in the winter. I buy them in big bags so I can always have them available.

When people hear “potato,” they’re often confused, thinking they are the starchy vegetables they sit next to in the supermarket. Here’s a bit of trivia for you: sweet potatoes belong to the morning glory family, while regular potatoes are part of the nightshade family.

Let’s get back to the starch - they both are starchy, a good source of carbs and fiber. Yet sweet potatoes offer something more. Their bright orange color means they are high in certain micronutrients, like vitamin A. Which means it offers lots of nutritional benefits.

They help with heart health. They’re high in beta-carotene, which is primarily found in orange, yellow, and green plant foods like carrots, broccoli, and sweet potatoes.

They improve gut health. Most Americans don’t get enough fiber, which is what you need for better gut health. Sweet potato fiber acts as a prebiotic, which is beneficial for gut bacteria. If you’re eating them regularly, they help prevent and treat constipation.

They support eye health. Vitamin A is a key nutrient for eye health - think beta-carotene. One medium sweet potato contains as much as 122 percent of your daily vitamin A. Some studies are showing that eating brightly colored veggies may help reduce the risk of age-related eye diseases like macular degeneration because those antioxidants counter oxidative damage.

Okay - I’ll back out of “nutrition” mode. 🙂 I just get excited over using nutritious food that tastes good too!

What I’m Cooking - Try What I’m Finding

Honestly, sweet potatoes are one of the easiest foods to cook with.

Short on time? Scrub it, throw it in the oven, and you’ll have a base to work with in 40 to 60 minutes. (It depends on how big the sweet potato is.) Cut it in half. Then, fill it with good stuff.

• Beans

• Chickpeas

• Edamame

• Cabbage

• Tomatoes

• Avocado

• Herbs

• Salsa

• Tahini

• Tempeh

• Coconut bacon

Want it to cook faster, chop it first. Then you can add it to Buddha bowls or a tofu scramble.

Want a snack? Cut them thin using a mandolin. Spray lightly with oil and salt, bake, and you’ve just made “healthy” sweet potato chips.

You can’t go wrong. The sweetness of the sweet potato adds to any meal.

Want more? I get it - you want some recipes. I have a few I’m in love with and serve regularly in my house.

Try These Sweet Potato Recipes

This. This is my latest “gotta have it” and it’s sooo good. And super easy.

One of my first finds when I started eating sweet potatoes regularly. She makes it super easy - you can’t go wrong with your toppings!

Another great recipe that will quickly become a favorite. She’s also one of my go-to authors when I can’t decide what to do for dinner.

I LOVED twice baked potatoes before my plant-based days. These days, I still love twice baked potatoes, yet I’ve moved to sweet potatoes. Try this recipe by another of my favorite cookbook authors, and you’ll fall in love with them too.

And I have to include a recipe from Sweet Potato Soul. 🙂 I love how she offers options for wherever you are on your plant-based journey. Want to shop at the store for recommendations? She makes suggestions. Want to start from scratch and do everything in the kitchen yourself? She’s got you covered there too. Trust me, you’re gonna want to try these BBQ Loaded Sweet Potato Fries … vegan, of course.

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